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Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
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 By: Walter Jayawardhana
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said there is no truth in the statement of the United National Party that after the Provincial Council elections in North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces the war to eliminate terrorism will be stopped. "We showed that terrorism could be eliminated from the country’s Eastern Province and similarly we will eliminate terrorism in the Northern Province and bring back democracy to the citizens of the area they once enjoyed", he said in a television interview conducted with him by the state owned Independent Television Network and broadcast Tuesday night. |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
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 New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) The spearhead of Sri Lanka's war against the Tamil Tigers Wednesday made light of India's criticism that Tamils were not with Colombo, saying the government had failed to convince the world about its sincerity to resolve the ethnic conflict.Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa added that Sri Lanka would never talk to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) because it would be a wasted effort.
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
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 A meditation on the anniversary of the deaths of Lakshman Kadirgamar and Kethesh Loganathan
by: Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha If July 1983 is remembered as the darkest episode in recent Sri Lankan history, August 12th should be seen as the saddest day in terms of the deaths of individuals. On August 12th 2005 Lakshman Kadirgamar, Foreign Minister and potential Prime Minister, was killed by the LTTE. He had, since his entry into Sri Lankan politics, managed to reverse the dark image of Sri Lanka that July 1983 had created. He also did much to correct the image of the LTTE as the sole representatives of oppressed Tamils that they had developed after their resistance to the Indian Peace Keeping Force. That the IPKF had been dragooned by LTTE intransigence into a war no one else wanted was forgotten, in the brilliant propaganda the LTTE has engaged in from the time the Indian army marched against them. Faced with an individual who could put a case better, who understood Indian imperatives whilst being unequivocally Sri Lankan in mind and heart, the LTTE eliminated him. |
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Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
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 by:S. Ram Mahesh
Colombo: When Mahela Jayawardene was translating for Ajantha Mendis in the press conference following the conclusion of the third Test, there occurred the sort of moment that throws light on the natural humours of two men, and the relationship sport binds them in. Jayawardene would incline his head in Mendis’s direction, listen to the reply, which to every question was incredibly brief, and answer in English, looking at his young spinner from time to time to see if he had anything to add. |
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Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
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 Eastern Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan is confident that the President will very soon be able to liberate the Northern Tamil civilians experiencing hardships under the grip of the LTTE terrorists for 30 years, as freedom was secured for the Easterners by liberating the Province.
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Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
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 First ever “Double Decker” bus assembled in Sri Lanka was introduced by the Micro Cars Ltd, the automobile manufacturer.The first bus assembled was presented to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 12th August. Prof,G.L Peiris, Minister Kumara Welgama and several others participated in the ceremony.The Manufactures are expecting to promote the bus both for the local and the foreign market.
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Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
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 COLOMBO: Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Tuesday expressed confidence that the security forces were on target to capture the Tiger stronghold of Kilinochchi within the next four months.
The Defence Secretary told The British Times Online publication the mission could be fulfilled by the end of this year. “You can't just push the Tigers into the jungles and wait. You have to search for them and completely eradicate them. Only then will peace come,” he said. His comments came amid warning by neighbouring India that Sri Lanka may not win the war unless the Tamils are given substantial political rights. |
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Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
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The Travel Junkie by Julia Dimon Scenes from the Kataragama Festival, a two week-long event in Sri Lanka that sees a huge influx of some 100,000 pilgrims. The air smells of kerosene and jasmine flower. Young men crack whips as thick as cobras, while others skillfully twirl fire, leaving circular trails of light. There is rhythmic drumming and tribal dancing. It’s what I imagine Burning Man Festival to be, except drugs and drinking are replaced by devotion to deities.
This is Kataragama Festival, a two week-long holy event that sees the arrival of some 100,000 Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim pilgrims. Devotees, many of whom have travelled for weeks to get to this auspicious city, have come to worship and perform acts of penance and self-mortification. Some swing from hooks piercing their bodies while others walk on fire to show their devotion to God.
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
 Security forces Wednesday (August 13) took total control over Kalvilan a garrison town of the LTTE, approximately 3kms Southwest of Thunukkai following days long heavy confrontations with LTTE bordering the western front of the Mullaittivu district. The gain of Kalvilan by troops of the 57 Division adds advantage toward the security forces positioned in clear striking distance of Thunukkai a vital terrorist garrison along the Vellankaulam- Mankulam main road. The advancing military formations had to force through LTTE laid mine fields and traps despite continuous enemy artillery barrages, Wanni security sources said. |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
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 President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the Government is committed to developing the country even amid the heavy pressure excreted by certain parties.
Making clarifications on the continuous allegations levelled against the government with regard to media freedom and human rights issues, President Rajapaksa said that the present Government has given the utmost freedom for journalists to carry out their duties independently and added that the Government is taking every possible step to protect the rights of each and every individual in the country. |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
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 By: Jeff Franks
HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned 82 on Wednesday, still a world and national figure even though he has not been seen in public since falling ill two years ago. After ruling for almost 50 years, Castro follows a special diet for an undisclosed illness that required intestinal surgery and admits he does not have the strength he once had. But he occasionally surfaces in videos on state-run television. The most recent showed him to be more robust than those aired a few months after his July 2006 operation.Raul Castro, who replaced his brother provisionally until the National Assembly formally elected him president in February, described Fidel Castro in a July speech as still very active, engaged and at times better informed than he was. |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
 COLOMBO: The LTTE should lay down arms if the Government is to seriously consider entering into peace talks with the outfit, Government Defence Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said. “The Government has never shut the door for peace, if the LTTE really wishes to come for peace talks,” he told a media briefing in Colombo. Minister Rambukwella said the LTTE has to meet particular requirements which the Government has been stressing, if it is genuinely interested in peace. |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
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 It was just a matter of one week! The official web site of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka has been ranked the most popular website of all the foreign Permanent Missions accredited to the United Nations Office in Geneva (Switzerland), according to Alexa Web Search Platform, up from its number two position last week.
According to Alexa, a leading international statistic and web search engine which crawls all publicly available websites to record and analyze web usage, the website of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva is now ranked number one of the most popular UN Mission website in Geneva. In reaching the top, Sri Lankan website has replaced the former number 1, the official website of the Permanent Mission of Algeria. The other top 10 official web sites of the Permanent Missions in Geneva which have placed after Sri Lanka are Algeria, Italy, Myanmar, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Kazakhstan, United States, Iran, Trinidad and Tobago and Afghanistan. |
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 |
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THIRD DEATH ANNIVERSARY by: Sir Adam ROBERTS Lakshman Kadirgamar, lawyer and politician: born Jaffna, Sri Lanka 12 April 1932; Called to the Bar, Inner Temple 1958; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1994-2001, 2004-05; Honorary Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford 2004; married (one son, one daughter); died Colombo August 12, 2005. Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was assassinated at his home in Colombo on August 12, 2005, had as profound a grasp of the threat posed by terrorist violence as any political leader in the world today. |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
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 Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake has emphasised that terrorism should be wiped out from the country to restore the peaceful environment which prevailed in the past.
Addressing a public rally in Medirigiriya to consolidate the victory of the Freedom Alliance at the Provincial polls, the Prime Minister said the soldiers have come very much closer to uprooting terrorism which had plagued the country for nearly 30 years. |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
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 by: Ravi Velloor, India Bureau Chief .
COLOMBO: Sri Lankans have just completed another month of introspection, as they have every July for so long now. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the country's Tamil insurgency. After 70,000 deaths and years of despondency, however, there is a glimmer of hope that the Sri Lankan army's recent battlefield successes might presage an end to the civil war in the north of the island. |
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 |
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:Second Death Anniversary by: Dayan JAYATILLEKA 1956, half a century ago, the year I was born, was a strangely seminal year: it was the year that Fidel and Che landed on the shores of Cuba, the year of the Suez crisis, of the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist party and de-Stalinisation; it was the year of Elvis Presley and rock-and-roll. |
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 |
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We reproduce a letter sent by Prof.Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Sri Lanka, to Human Rights Watch in response to its recent press release regarding the journalist J S Tissainayagam. Mr. Brad Adams,Director / Asia Human Rights Watch, London Dear Mr. Adams, I write with reference to your press release entitled ‘Free Journalist and Other Critics’, issued on August 8th. The impression of that release is that Mr. Tissainayagam has been arrested because he has criticized the government. This is not accurate. Mr. Tissainayagam was arrested because of suspicions regarding connections to the LTTE, a terrorist organization which, as you are aware, is banned in several countries. In the days when the LTTE was engaged in negotiations with the Sri Lankan government, Mr. Tissainayagam developed connections with them, and with the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO). There was nothing wrong with this, but subsequently, as you know, the LTTE broke off negotiations, whilst it became clear that TRO funding was used for terrorist purposes – the TRO too has now been banned in several countries. |
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